McXal's Reviews

This three-night weekend in Texas continues tonight with more Tag Wars 2019 Tournament action at the forefront. Colt Cabana was scheduled to team with Flip Gordon in the tournament, but Flip's injury forced a reshuffle with Colt recruiting Willie Mack to join him. Mystery surrounds their opponents, with Kenny King promising that his as-yet-unnamed colleague will make a real impact. Elsewhere Jay Lethal defends the World Title against Vinny Marseglia for no good reason whatsover, whilst Britt Baker makes her final ROH appearance (having already signed with AEW) to challenge Kelly Klein for the Women Of Honor World Title. Expect more shenanigans involving Lifeblood trying to preserve the 'honour' of the company in the face of anarchic forces looking to bring about lawless chaos too. Along with assorted guests throughout the show, Ian Riccaboni provides commentary from Houston, TX. Apparently it's ROH's first time in Houston since 2009 (the weekend Nigel dropped the belt to Jerry Lynn) - and they have vastly over-estimated the size of arena they needed. It looks appalling...

We open the show with Tag Wars 2019 Tournament action. Last night saw Fin-Juice, Villain Enterprises and the Lethal/Gresham duo advance to the semi-finals, with another team to join them here. One of the four competitors is a former Tag Wars Tournament winner - Beer City Bruiser having won it in 2016 with Silas Young. The Bouncers are clearly the hot favourites, but as former Six-Man Champions The Boys have a track record of sizeable upsets...

ROH really need to not let The Bouncers do their 'from the bar' entrance when it involves filming them walking past embarrassing amounts of empty seats. Boy #1 calls Milonas out to start the match with him. He pats his belly affectionately before being joined by his brother to run circles around the Kingpin - until he is completely blown up. The Bouncers miss stereo ass splashes and eat double dropkicks from The Boys. Milonas' pants are falling down...but it doesn't stop him catching both Boys and drilling them with a powerslam. #1 eats a succession of ass attacks in the corner but retains consciousness and dives out of the way to avoid a Bruiser cannonball. #2 pulls a 'twin thing' swap-out with his brother, hitting a standing Shiranui on Bruiser for 2. Rolling double Sole Food strikes on Brawler...who no sells them entirely and decks The Boys. Sidewalk slam eliminates Boy #1, then #2 is escorted to the top rope for Last Call. The Bouncers advance at 07:03

Rating - * - My interest in this was minimal. ROH were smart enough to keep this short, and the workers themselves were smart enough to keep it light and relatively humorous. Unfortunately when you're performing to a 2/3's empty arena even humour lands it lacks resonance due to the cavernous empty space and silence. The Boys trying to blow up Milonas was smart, and from there they hot all the comedic beats you expect from these two acts. The Boys really feel done as an in-ring duo without a radical overhaul of their presentation, as they've been stale for a long time.

Ian Riccaboni announces that Bandido was injured at the hands of Silas Young last night, meaning he can't compete in a scheduled TV Title Proving Ground Match later in the evening. 

Up next we are scheduled to see Sumie Sakai against Thunder Rosa of the Twisted Sisterz. Just as with Holidead's match in Dallas yesterday, the Twisted Sisterz cheat frequently which results in the match being thrown out ninety seconds or so. The Sisterz try to beat down Sumie, drawing out Madison Rayne to make a save just as Sakai did for her yesterday. She challenges them to a tag match...

The set-up to this was clumsy, with Rosa and Sumie working for far longer than necessary if their singles match was going to be thrown out. But it remains an interesting match, since the Twisted Sisterz are one of the more unique aspects of the WOH division right now. Rayne beat Holidead yesterday, but she and Sumie aren't a regular team which puts them at a clear disadvantage.

It's a four woman brawl to get us started; Sakai and Rayne throwing the Sisterz to the floor with stereo satellite headscissors takedowns. Madison leaps off the apron, then Sumie one-ups her with the TOP ROPE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! Thunder trips Sakai from behind though, allowing Holi to cave in her face with a low dropkick. Rosa instantly makes it worse with an illegal kick through the ropes as well. Thunder Rosa actually shows a lot of her slightly off-beat personality as she works Sumie over, to the point that she takes her eyes off her opponent and is almost tapped out to a cross armbreaker. Holidead has to rescue her partner there. Leg drop/running senton gets a close nearfall as the former WOH Champion slips closer and closer to defeat whilst Madison can only watch helplessly from the apron. Dead muscles Sakai to the top rope, only to be knocked aside and decked with a missile dropkick. Hot tag to Rayne, who levels Rosa with the ripcord Ace Crusher for 2. Sakai and Holidead brawl on the floor...as inside the ring Madison looks like an utter moron, missing a flying crossbody by MILES. I suspect Thunder Rosa was supposed to move, but it looked as horrific as ROH running a show in a giant, mostly-empty arena. Rosa grabs a handful of tights and pins Madison at 07:28

Rating - ** - There seemed to be a gulf in quality between the Twisted Sisterz and their opponents. I enjoyed Sumie's work in 2018, and Rayne is a veteran...but neither of them looked even close to being as skilled or effective as Holidead and Thunder Rosa. The power of Holi, married to the presence and charisma of Rosa make them a really striking duo. They are the kind of talent that ROH need to recruit a lot more of, because right now this is about the ceiling match quality they have with the limited opposition they'll get to work with. As a match this was fine. The heels got decent reactions, Sumie showed adequate babyface fire and Madison (other than that sh*tty crossbody spot) was good value on a hot tag. But it was insubstantial, bland and forgettable with a lousy finish tacked on the end. The Twisted Sisterz deserve better than this.

After the match Madison storms off and leaves Sumie alone in the ring. This is actually Rayne's last VOD show appearance before her departure. She appears at the upcoming Florida TV taping as her last date, but left soon after having requested her release due to 'creative differences'. 

Apparently C2C are back after a brief excursion to Europe, just in time to participate in the Tag Wars Tournament. They had a strong 2018 and picked up significant victories, but never really threatened to break out to the 'next level' as will clearly be their goal for 2019. Therefore a win in this tournament, plus the guaranteed Crockett Cup slot and ROH Tag Title shot it offers will clearly be on their radar. They start off against two thirds of the Shinobi Shadow Squad. Burger is fast becoming a wily veteran, whilst Eli is one of the brightest prospects on the roster meaning that this clearly isn't a walk-over for C2C. Rhett Titus, in his Speedo, guests on commentary for this one.

LSG starts with Cheeseburger, who appears to be wrestling with a shoulder injury. It doesn't seem to slow him down though and he works to a stalemate with St. Giovanni. Isom and Ali take over, Shaheem still apparently nursing neck injuries suffered in a car accident last year. Ali's power gives him the edges, but he isn't smarter than Burger and doesn't see the smaller 3-S member sneak in to drop him with a bulldog. C2C hit a few double-teams on Cheese to quickly quell his momentum though, including a pretty cool throwing version of the lungblower. Shaheem now gets to use his size, standing over Burger and bludgeoning him into the canvas with clubbing right hands. Eli recognises the danger and now has to invade the ring to break pinfalls to save his partner. CB makes a critical tag to his young partner, who explodes into the ring and instantly ejects Ali from it. POP-UP AIR RAID CRASH on LSG gets 2! Brainbuster blocked, into the Saint-splosion! SPINNING GUTWRENCH BOMB by Ali gets 2. Cheeseburger hits a double crossbody block, then a superkick on St. Giovanni. Shotei nailed, setting up a springboard frog splash by Eli. Burger hits a springboard somersault senton for 2 - before Shaheem breaks the in with a diving headbutt. 450 Splash from LSG, pinning Burger for the big win. Coast 2 Coast advance at 10:35

Rating - ** - I wasn't in love with this match by any means, but I really did admire the amount of pluck, heart and determination on display. None of these guys are particularly established as major players on the roster and if they all dropped out tomorrow I don't think fans would really miss them (Burger included). Against that backdrop they'd be entitled to phone a ten minute filler match in. But they really didn't, everything about this was built from outright hard work. Some of it was a mess, but they were throwing a lot of sh*t at the wall and a good amount stuck. The last minute or so in particular was very exciting. It is hard not to like a match where every participant is working their asses off.

The NJPW LA Dojo Young Lions made their ROH debuts the previous evening in Dallas, without much success. Coughlin and Fredericks fought hard but were eliminated from Tag Wars by Juice Robinson and David Finlay, whilst Connors got torn apart by Jeff Cobb. Katsuyori Shibata has rallied his youthful charges though and sends them back into battle this evening against Villain Enterprises. The Villains are angling for a shot at The Kingdom's Six-Man Titles so need to keep picking up trios wins, alongside Scurll's World Championship aspirations and the fact that Brody and PCO are in the final stages of Tag Wars 2019 as well...

Marty throws a streamer at the Dojo boys because it is 'green like [them]'! Fredericks starts with Brody having taken Marty's insult the most personally it seems. The youngster survives Brody's early attacks and vacates so Coughlin can have a crack at Scurll. The Villain has some fun trading some basics and chain-wrestling with the rookie, clearly not taking it seriously enough and getting driven into the ropes as a result. PCO in next, demanding that Connors take free, unprotected shots at him. They have seemingly no effect before the Monster dumps Clark on his ass with a back suplex. CANNONBALL SENTON TO THE APRON...MISSES! PCO somehow isn't dead but the miss disrupts VE's momentum sufficiently for the Young Lions to rush the ring. They work Marty over 3-on-1 whilst King revives PCO on the outside. Brody tags at last and mows through all three Young Lions with ease. Connors is flattened with a cannonball in the corner, and when the kid bails King and Marty stay on him for the SUPERKICK/BRAINBUSTER on the floor! Sunset flip/German suplex gets 2 before Fredericks and Coughlin break the pin. BACK BODY DROP SOMERSAULT PLANCHA by King and PCO! In the ring Connors counters the Chickenwing into the Boston Crab. Scurll rolls free, dumps him with a powerbomb then puts him in a crab of his own as set-up for a PCO guillotine leg drop. GONZO BOMB! PCO-SAULT! PCO pins Connors to win at 09:02

Rating - * - Clearly there was entertainment value to be found in watching Brody and PCO massacre the NJPW kids, but as a complete package it felt like there was a lot wrong with this. At nearly ten minutes it was far too long and pedestrian for a squash match. The run-time felt like nothing but lip service to New Japan and actively hurt the quality of the contest (in contrast to the Villains' energetic trios-match squashes with Shinobi Shadow Squad on TV or the Skyler/Hollis/Quinn group in Concord). In addition, it felt like the only offence the dojo kids were able to land was at Marty Scurll's expense. That is clearly not how ROH should be treating arguably their top draw at this time. It felt completely damaging to his credibility, at a time when Ring Of Honor really needed it.

Up next we are scheduled to see Matt Taven against Jon Gresham, which sounds like a great match on paper and exactly what the show needs as a shot in the arm after a poor first hour. Unfortunately that isn't what we get. Taven comes out in jeans, gets on the mic during Gresham's entrance and refuses to wrestle a 'little Melvin' like The Octopus. He doesn't think Jay Lethal's 'young boy' deserves a shot at the Real World Champion and lets TK O'Ryan take his place...

The first hour of this show has been pretty bad. The 'old' ROH would step up a gear here and unleash two quality acts like Gresham and Taven, give them 15-20 minutes and let them produce a midcard classic that reignites interest in the show. It makes perfect sense that Gresham, as Lethal's tag partner, would get in the ring with Taven as build up to the inevitable Lethal/Taven World Title showdown. ROH/Delirious had started 2019 seemingly with intentions of getting back to a more 'traditional' ROH experience...so it's a real shame to see them back out on the scheduled bout. Clearly if Matt is injured (by the end of 2019 he was working through pretty serious ankle injuries, maybe that was a factor here) then I get it...but this feels like a disappointment. Having said that, TKO comes into this having just wrestled his best ROH singles match to date on TV against the debuting Rush. Gresham is more than capable of helping him to a great match too. Taven joins commentary to check out the action.

O'Ryan takes a cheap shot at Gresham because The Octopus looked set to comprehensively out-wrestle him. Getting confident, O'Ryan then offers Gresham a wrist and demands the chance to get on the mat with him. Jon has a smile all over his face at that and proceeds to make TK look rather foolish. All TKO can do is spit in his face (then get really annoyed when Gresh tries to spit back at him). Fed up of being embarrassed, O'Ryan starts using closed fist punches and chokes to get the edge over the self-professed purist he shares the ring with. He then escorts Gresham to the floor and starts throwing him into the guardrails over and over again. Still reeling from that, TK goes back in the ring and clubs on the neck in the corner. Now weakened, O'Ryan is able to hold his own when trading holds - and finally get the edge with a diving enzi across the head and neck for 2. Just as we saw against Rush, TK starts throwing strikes and really rocking The Octopus with some big bombs. In doing so he lets Gresham get back to a vertical base though, and the skilful technician works into a position where he can hit a dropkick in the corner then a diving knee off the apron. He kicks out the arm and mounts O'Ryan into The Octopus Stretch! Red balloons flutter up from underneath the ring, heralding the arrival of Vinny Marseglia. He distracts the referee meaning he doesn't see TK submit. Gresham goes after Vinny, giving O'Ryan the chance to swoop and pin him with his feet on the ropes. TK wins at 09:39

Rating - ** - The match was pretty good. Nothing ground breaking, but comfortably the best wrestling on the show as TK used a combination of cheating, brawling and some really good striking to close the gap between he and the highly-skilled Gresham. It was a tight story which allowed both men to show off what they are good at and had the small crowd fully invested. The kind of match that, had it gone 15-20 minutes, could have been a real hidden gem for the show and a calling card, break-out moment for O'Ryan. Instead we get a paltry nine minutes of decent wrestling...then a pathetic double-cheating non-finish. Marseglia's interference was annoying and unnecessary enough. Why the f*ck couldn't they have let both men (and the ref) retain at least some credibility by having TK hit a finishing move to win? Did he seriously need outside interference AND cheating? So much about this segment left me extremely annoyed.

As you'd expect, Marseglia and O'Ryan put the boots to Gresham after the bell. Taven informs us that they are using Lethal's 'young boy' to send him a message...as the World Champ himself sprints past the announce table and to the ring. Jay demands his scheduled World Title Match with Vinny start immediately...

ROH started the year with a long queue of possible challengers to the World Championship, all with viable claims. Even taking into account the injuries to Sabin and Flip scuppering that somewhat, it is absolutely laughable that Marseglia gets a title shot. Why not make this non-title and add an element of intrigue about the end result? Vinny has announced he is going to take the ROH Title belt and throw it into the trash (since Taven is the 'Real World Champion'). Why not keep that, but just have him threaten to beat Lethal up and take it from him? It's not like The Kingdom acknowledge it as a real belt that needs to be won or lost in a match. The real question here is whether Delirious has enough confidence in Vinny to let them wrestle a credible World Championship Match, or whether this is another overbooked mess...

Marseglia PUNTS the World Title belt during the introductions, which does come off as genuinely shocking. The enraged Lethal attacks him, but in doing so makes it a brawl on the floor which is exactly what Vinny wants. Regardless, Jay still channels his mentor Samoa Joe by positioning his opponent in a chair by the guardrails, taking a big run-up and kicking him in the jaw. Marseglia responds by crotching him on the top rope and hitting a missile dropkick to knock him out of the ring. He grabs the title belt again and starts taunting Lethal with it whilst choking him on the arena floor. Next Vinny pulls out his axe from under the ring...but in doing so turns his back on Lethal who CLOBBERS him with a tope suicida (which almost knocks the axe into the crowd!). Side Effect gets 2 for Marseglia who still has a clear lead despite that blow. Lethal Combination closes the gap, followed by a jarring enziguri strike and a running DVD. Hail To The King blocked, and so is the Figure 4. Lethal Injection wins it at 06:32

Rating - ** - Perversely this forgettable, unnecessary World Title Match is probably the best thing on the show so far. I vehemently disagreed with its very existence, but once you get past that the wrestling contained therein was of a decent standard. Marseglia played his part well, and looked considerably more comfortable as a demented, unhinged brawler than he does as part of The Kingdom (something to think about in the future). That said, everything other than Vinny giving the World Title a big old punt was pretty instantly forgettable. Ian Riccaboni has been HEAVILY pushing that Lethal now has the same amount of title defences as the likes of Nigel or Bryan, and will now make more days as champ than Joe as well. Even if you disregard the fact that Lethal needed a cumulative two reigns to get there and, great as he is, is not at the same level as a World Champion as those three...the fact that ROH burned what THEY THEMSELVES have put over as a big deal in such a mediocre, throwaway manner is really quite appalling.

O'Ryan comes out again and makes a dart at Lethal, but is taken out by a tope con hilo from the returning Jonathan Gresham. 

Does this count as the first ROH/AEW inter-promotional bout? Britt was the first woman signed by AEW, revealing her signing right at the start of January - so she is already an AEW contracted worker by this point. She has subsequently told the story of her signing, which includes the likes of Cody and Brandi Rhodes convincing her not to sign with ROH or WWE (whom also had interest, and also employ her partner Adam Cole) in late-2018 when they themselves were still in ROH. Kelly is the Women Of Honor 'Gatekeeper' and has vowed to defend her belt in every match. That now means she is ROH's women's division standard-bearer and is fighting to prevent an outsider taking ROH's female championship to Jacksonville. Mandy Leon joins commentary, and it's fun to listen to both her and Ian struggle to dance around the subject of AEW.

Kelly puts her mouthguard in, shakes Britt's hand then tackles her in the mouth - presumably trying to mess up the teeth of the real-life dentist. She continues laying in strikes to Baker's face throughout the opening minute. Next she takes Britt to the mat and works a chinlock...but with her grip clasped firmly across the mouth. Baker is understandably pissed off and starts retaliating with a flurry of strikes of her own, setting up a Rocker Dropper. Klein has had her own dental problems in the past of course, so backs off but is powerless to stop Baker from stealing her mouthguard. Jawbreaker/Superkick combo gets 2 for the challenger. Lockjaw applied, only for Kelly to escape and dump Britt with a fisherman suplex. Front facelock applied by Klein...COUNTERED with a Mandible Claw by Baker! Klein escapes, kicks her opponent in the face then clamps on to End Of The Match. Todd Sinclair was practically stopping the match already after that kick though, and Klein retains at 04:39

Rating - ** - The idea of both women working the mouth of the other was really innovative. Baker is a dentist so the motivation is obvious there, but ROH also made a huge deal out of Kelly's dental work during her feud with Jenny Rose too. Unfortunately, that is really all this match had going for it. I completely understand the reasons why, but in having their contracted talent crush AEW's first ever female signee so comprehensively it really did relegate this match to just another short, forgettable Women Of Honor Match. From ROH's perspective it is a shame Britt didn't sign, and after Deonna Purrazzo left for WWE last year it is the second time in the space of a year that the WOH division has failed to lock down the skilled female worker they had been building up to be a top babyface. (You can see why they went with safe choice Sumie as the first champion...)

Mandy Leon teases that she is preparing for an in-ring return, but is barged off commentary by Kelly Klein who sends a pointed message to Sumie Sakai ahead of their title match tomorrow night...

Kenny King's mystery partner is revealed to be his fellow former 'Beat Down Clan' member in TNA, former WWE star MVP. They come out to (what I believe is) the same entrance theme that they used as part of the BDC in TNA, and also wear the same masks. It means that he has a pronounced advantage in this, our final Tag Wars 2019 Round One encounter. He has experience teaming and working with his partner - something Cabana doesn't have a whole lot of with his. Colt was originally scheduled to team with Flip Gordon, but had to recruit his friend (and fellow independent scene veteran) Willie Mack when Flip got injured in Concord. 

MVP, with his 'stockier-than-he-used-to-be' physique, greying hair and wrestling in a t-shirt, looks like he is cosplaying as every washed up former WWE star grabbing a paycheck in front of miniscule crowds on the indies. He starts on the apron to allow Kenny to do the heavy lifting with Willie. As usual, Mack's deceptive speed catches his opponent off-guard as they fight to an early stalemate. MVP (who has ditched the shirt at least) tags and is quickly joined by Colt. They run through some pseudo-comedy mat work, which in truth MVP isn't really good enough to do so it looks a little messy. Cabana rips off the 'Ballin' free-throw pose...which quickly becomes a full-blown imaginary basketball skit. Mack and Cabana take turns dropping elbows across MVP's arm, with Willie finally knocking him out of the ring. Of course Big Willie thinks about a dive as well - but runs right into an intercepting knee strike from King. The BDC start working over Mack's midsection, doing such damage that even a Chocolate Stunner doesn't give him enough time to make a tag. STANDING Shining Wizard nailed on MVP though, this time allowing Mack to slap Cabana's palm. Double quebrada nailed, as is a Bionic Elbow. Flying Asshole/inverted corner cannonball combo by Cabana and Mack! Willie goes right into the Samoan Drop/standing moonsault combo for 2. MVP sends both opponents to the floor then drops down so Kenny can land a STEP-UP CORKSCREW PRESS TO THE FLOOR! Ballin' Elbow nailed, followed by the Playmaker for 2. DOUBLE Chocolate Stunner by Willie! Colt tags but instantly eats a Superkick and the Chin Checker. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA by Mack! Player's Boots from MVP to both opponents, sending Cabana into the Royal Flush. King pins Colt to advance at 15:37

Rating - ** - If you hadn't guessed from the tone of my play-by-play, I've never been a particularly great fan of MVP. I presume at this point he must be in his mid-40's, he's certainly not in the best shape of his career and for most of this match he looked outright bad. Everyone else in the match was visibly having to slow down to accommodate him, and even then most of his stuff looked ropey. It felt like the kind of performance that the passionate, volatile, opinionated crowd of ROH's early years would have vocally crapped all over. Times change though, and the whole deal felt thoroughly bush league as the ageing 'big name' lumbered around, plodding through his old routine and getting cheered for it whilst the better, faster wrestlers orbit around him. Everyone else was only ok. Colt was funny, but probably to the detriment of his opponents' credibility. Willie pretty much worked his usual routine and had no interest in selling for sh*t. King was decent as the antagonist of the bout, but with ROH clearly trying to push him in 2019 I don't think it serves him well to play the junior partner to MVP again at this stage of his career.

With that the Tag Wars 2019 semi-finals are set tomorrow night. It will be Villain Enterprises, The Bouncers and the Beat Down Clan on one side of the bracket, with the other triple threat contested by Coast 2 Coast, Fin-Juice and Lethal/Gresham.

This is another TV Title Proving Ground Match, meaning if Cobb isn't victorious then the winner gets a TV Title shot down the line. Cobb has been all-conquering in ROH so far so has nothing to fear, but he will also respect the accomplishments and credentials of his opponents. Castle is a ROH Champion, whilst Rocky is a tenured veteran who has held championships all around the world. 

Cobb and Castle go nose-to-nose, clearly keenly aware of the amateur wrestling prowess the other possesses. Romero gets annoyed and just wants a little attention when they fail to notice him. In the end he starts throwing Dalton out of the ring over and over so he can work with Cobb one-on-one. Eventually The Boys intervene and put Castle back onto the apron. He tries to get on the mat with Jeff...but is thrown aside with ease. Once again Romero pulls Castle to the floor and grabs the chance to work the champion over. Cobb blocks the Forever Clotheslines with a thumping belly to belly suplex. Dalton is pissed off at Romero meaning they come to blows...but then become unwilling partners in a missile dropkick/crossbody combo on Cobb. Dalton tries a powerbomb on Rocky, who instantly counters with a hurricanrana. Jeff then ignores the exact same counter to powerbomb Romero into Dalton's face. Forever Clotheslines from Romero to both opponents. Shiranui blocked, before Cobb mows both potential challengers down with a clothesline. Not content with that, he hooks them both up for a DOUBLE PUMPHANDLE SUPLEX! OKLAHOMA STAMPEDE on Castle! Athletic-Plex on Romero! Castle sends Cobb packing with a Heat Seeking Missile, but when he tries to grab Rocky, the veteran counters Bang-A-Rang into a roll-up...and wins the match at 09:17

Rating - ** - ROH has provided some pretty fun undercard triple threats of late. This wasn't terrible, but did feel a little more lethargic than some we've seen recently (thinking about Survival Of The Fittest 2018 as an example). There was some fun to be had; Romero as an annoyance trying to disrupt the grap-fest that Castle and Cobb had planned was fun, as was Cobb's rampage in the last minute or so. Unfortunately what this match did best was hype a showdown between Cobb and Castle. Which would be great except they put Rocky over...

This was supposed to be 4-on-4, but Bully came out before the bell to make his first live appearance since tearing up the 2300 Arena during the Farewell To The Elite. He congratulates himself for kicking The Elite (well, he calls them Bullet Club, but I presume he meant The Elite) out of ROH, blames Todd Sinclair for costing him his match with Flip at Final Battle, and threatens him to make this 5-on-4. Juice gets on the mic and agrees to it, even though it puts his team at a clear disadvantage. Last night in Dallas the villainous group targeted Lifeblood repeatedly. Silas attacked Bandido's knee after their (great) singles match causing him to miss this show, and the night ended with the group beating down Fin-Juice, Williams and Haskins. This is very much a battle between two groups with diametrically opposed philosophies, looking to control the future direction of Ring Of Honor. Tenille Dashwood, herself a member of Lifeblood, joins Ian R for commentary.

The first couple of minutes pass without much more than Bully doing much more than trash-talking Finlay's 'midcard father'. Haskins starts with Mark Briscoe, the latter trying to bully and intimidate the Englishman but finding him a more than capable foe. Suplex/atomic drop combo by Haskins and Tracy, then Hot Sauce goes for an early submission with an ankle lock. Briscoe sensibly makes it a strike battle with Williams, rocking the Lifeblood member until Jay tags and mows him down with a mafia kick. Tracy retaliates with a cradle suplex for 2 and quickly tags out so he can stay as fresh as possible. Silas and Finlay knock the sh*t out of each other and it seems like David has the edge after he lands a diving uppercut for 2. Lifeblood try to inflict an injury to Young's arm so he quickly tags out to Taylor...who rockets Finlay through the air with a shoulder tackle. Now he's down, Bully is finally happy to tag in with 'young boy' Finlay...but in the end talks so much trash about Juice that it's Robinson instead who comes in. Rather than fight the IWGP US Champion, Bubba pulls him around by the dreadlocks and tries to totally nullify him with headlocks. He tosses Juice into the laps of his partners in the corner, where the Briscoes and Silas are waiting poised to crotch him against the ringpost. The pace slows to a cruel, methodical crawl as the heel group take turns working Robinson over, making it harder and harder for him to breathe. They take turns putting the boots into his ribs, neck and head causing the rest of Lifeblood to become increasingly agitated. Mark Briscoe tries to choke him out with a sleeper hold, and crunches the midsection again with the rolling DVD when Robinson escapes. FROGGY BOW GETS KNEES! Juice tags Finlay...but finds that Todd Sinclair didn't see it due to a distraction by Bully. He argues with the rest of Lifeblood whilst all five opponents stomp Juice into the dirt. Bully is left alone in the ring with Juice after his partners smash Lifeblood all over ringside...but walks into The Taste kick due to over-confidence on his part. Robinson looks up and sees nobody in his corner to tag...until out limps Bandido! Still selling the back, rib and knee injuries that Silas inflicted yesterday he hops onto the apron and demands to be allowed into the match! Todd Sinclair agrees, and Juice tags him in. He unleashes a flurry of zany lucha spots on the Briscoes and when Taylor tries to shut him down Bandido COUNTERS with a brilliant hurricanrana. Young and Bandido square off again, the luchador shaking off Silas' attacks to hit the 21-PLEX! TOP ROPE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! TORNILLO on Bully gets 2 before the Briscoes break the pin, and before you know it all ten guys are in the ring throwing punches. Bully CRUSHES Bandido's ribs with a body avalanche...but MISSES a Vader Bomb and gets speared into the mat by Finlay. SICK KICK by Mark Briscoe! SUPER TURNBUCKLE DDT BY TRACY! DISCUS LARIAT! Slingshot swinging neckbreaker from Young to Williams. Haskins dodges The Plunge and nails Silas with the sit-out powerbomb. Taylor almost decapitates Haskins with a knee strike, but is in turn dropped in the corner for the Juice Robinson cannonball. JAB DUEL between Juice and Jay! Mark Briscoe and Tracy trade shots on the top rope. HOT SAUCE SUPERPLEXES HIM OFF THE TOP INTO A PILE OF BODIES ON THE FLOOR! FROG SPLASH! BANDIDO PINS BULLY! Lifeblood win at 25:58

Rating - **** - A total showstealer, or more to put it more accurately, this completely saved the show. It was a really fun, lengthy multi-man tag match allowing lots of guys to shine. In particular, and I'm almost shocked to see myself typing this, I thought it used Bully extremely well in putting over the Lifeblood guys. Not just with him putting Bandido (ROH's newest, hottest star) over clean either. He can talk with the absolute best, so they used his penchant for constant narration during his matches to set Juice and Finlay up for BIG moments of redemption within the match. He buried them constantly, so at different points each of them got their moment of vengeance when they put him on his ass to give Lifeblood a significant advantage. As I've said a few times, there is an argument to be made that this heel group would be the same - if not better - without Bubba. He completely eclipses them and reduced his partners (in particular Taylor who was hardly involved despite the match going almost half an hour) to back-up acts. BUT, since he was here, at least they used him well and Lifeblood emerge from this looking great. There really wasn't a 'dead' portion or skippable part of the match to speak of. Bully's verbals spiced up the opening exchanges, the heat segment on Juice was enjoyable (since he sells and generates sympathy so brilliantly). Bandido's unannounced arrival got a huge pop, and having him sell the injuries from Dallas really puts over how great Bandido/Silas was too. His arrival then triggered a whacky, frantic, spot-filled last six or seven minutes which paid off a lot of the great ground work they'd laid. 

Tape Rating - ** - This show doesn't have it's own DVD release. It is only available on Honor Club, where you can skip straight to the main event (which is also on the 'Best Of ROH 2019 Volume 1' compilation DVD). I can see why, because the first two and a half hours of this show are really poor. ROH relapsed into all the old tropes that have caused them issues in previous years. Too many matches, too many crappy finishes, too much interference and too many matches where guys look like they are working on autopilot. When you load so much talent (ten big names) into the main event it is inevitable that in a company of ROH's size the undercard does suffer. But there was enough talent booked to make the quality of the undercard here completely inexcusable and piss-poor value for money for this paying audience. Why did they pull Taven/Gresham? Having pulled Taven/Gresham, why not let Gresham/TK go twenty minutes since they know Gresh is reliable and TK came in after the best singles match of his run? Knowing how weak the undercard was, why on earth were proven commodities like Villain Enterprises sidelined in an irrelevant squash match with NJPW's US dojo boys? I could spend an hour listing all the things that could've been done differently to make this show better, and I haven't even got round to how terrible MVP looked either. The main event is REALLY good and totally worth checking out. You can do so on Honor Club by skipping the rest of the show, or by purchasing the aforementioned compilation DVD...and skipping all but one match from the rest of the show too. 

I've told and used this story before, but I haven't for a while so I'll pull it out again here. In his 'Book Of Secrets' shoot interview after his release from Ring Of Honor, former booker Gabe Sapolsky talked at length about his disappointment at how badly 2008's 'Battle For Supremacy' show turned out, how he felt he'd let down ROH's paying audience in the Dayton market, and how he'd planned to deliver something really special next time ROH were in that building (which turned out to be after he was fired, and the show 'Escalation' was actually worse). Battle For Supremacy featured a brilliant, under-rated wrestling match between Erick Stevens and Bryan Danielson, an absolute slug-fest between Roderick Strong and Chris Hero, an intriguing Aries/Necro Butcher angle and a decent Steen-erico vs Age Of The Fall tag team sprint...yet Gabe and ROH's standards at the time were so high, and the entire crew cared so much about fan satisfaction, that even with what was a decent enough B-show, they left disappointed. It has been a LONG time since I felt like Ring Of Honor under Sinclair's ownership and Delirious' booking have put that level of care, love, attention to detail and EFFORT into the booking, promoting and running of live events. The rampant mediocrity of the first two hours of this show is merely the latest example unfortunately...

3) Kelly Klein vs Britt Baker (**)

2) Jeff Cobb vs Rocky Romero vs Dalton Castle (**)

1) Lifeblood vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe/Shane Taylor/Silas Young/Bully Ray (****)